Turnabout is Fair Play
by angels-of-the-silence
Summary: Isshin remembers meeting Masaki and considers the parallels between his own situation and his son's nearly identical... just backwards. mild IchiRuki, spoilers for Ichi's daddy.


Turnabout is Fair Play

"Okay... so... the... thingamajigger... is... uh..."

Had he not been mumbling to himself in such an undignified manner, Kurosaki Isshin would have made an imposing figure, crouched as he was against the moon on the top of a telephone pole. As it was, he gave the impression of being an idiot, which he was. That was not to say that he was stupid, or incapable. He was, in fact, both intelligent and talented. To be a Captain of the Gotei Thirteen, he had to be. That did not keep him from being a complete and utter moron.

"Daaaaaamn, why did _I_ have to come to the stinky human world?" he groaned to himself, pouting down at the spread of Karakura. Just because of some stupid thingamajigger messing up the space-time continuum or the spiritual influx or the whatever the hell that was the reason that powerful Shinigami had to have their powers bound when they went to the human world. There was too much power in the area, so it was screwed up. So naturally they had forced Isshin to go and fix it.

Damn.

Now, where was it...?

He had never been good with the whole reiatsu thing. In fact, he sucked. Terribly.

But this was such a _big_ reiatsu that even he couldn't miss it.

Having located it, he leapt off the pole, seeming to float in the short, dramatic moment before he tripped over his robes and plummeted a good twenty feet onto his face.

- - -

Masaki stared at her ceiling, pouting. She was bored, and... she was bored.

And grounded.

For some reason.

It was _not_ her fault that that shop window had shattered. She had only been walking by! Then she'd felt something weird, and turned around to try to find whatever it was that she was sensing- perhaps it was one of the ghosts, she'd just have to tell them to _go away_ before someone saw her talking to thin air and called a therapist (_again_)- but then there had been a huge rumbling noise and glass was flying everywhere.

And then her freaking parents had grounded her! She didn't even get _why_. They'd just yelled at her about being careful and then sent her to her room and gone out to dinner.

Aaaaaargh.

Switching her glare to the window, Masaki rather thought that she would rather anything than this boredom.

This offer did not extend to a random boy walking through the wall.

"WHAT THE-?!"

"WHAT THE-?!"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"WHO ARE YOU?!"

"YOU CAN SEE ME?!"

"HOW THE HECK DID YOU GET IN HERE?!"

"YOU CAN SEE ME?!"

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?!"

"YOU CAN SEE ME?!"

"_WHAT_ ARE YOU?!"

"YOU CAN SEE ME?!"

"I THINK WE'VE ESTABLISHED THAT!"

They stared at each other in what appeared to be mutual horror before the boy fell over backward, knocking asunder Masaki's desk. It looked as though he had fainted.

Yes, fainted.

Masaki was nonplussed.

- - -

"_Shinigami_," Isshin repeated for what seemed like the thousandth time.

Masaki raised an eyebrow at him.

"Uh-huh. Sure you aren't just some psycho ghost kid come to bug me?"

"_Yes_!"

"Right. Sure. Okay, well, if you wanna play Shinigami, I'll play too. Not like I have anything else to do." She fixed her features into a smile and held out her hand. "Honda Masaki. You are?"

Isshin stared at her hand.

"What's that for?"

"To shake, silly."

"Why would you do that?"

". . . Never mind, then." She dropped her hand. "What's your name?"

"Kurosaki Isshin..." He didn't bother with the title. She didn't believe he was a Shinigami, so why should he?

She opened her mouth to say something that was probably along the lines of, that's a weird name, when there was a crashing noise from downstairs and the house shook.

"What was _that_?!" Masaki gasped, nearly jumping out of her skin.

But Isshin was already halfway out the door.

"H-hey! Where are you-" there was another crash. "Wait for me!"

And Masaki followed him out.

- - -

Isshin knew, as he watched his son through the window, that history was always doomed to repeat itself. He admired the way the moonlight cast Ichigo's shadow onto the grass, so that it pooled with that of his companion. Rukia, Isshin believed, was her name. She'd introduced herself as a Kuchiki. A noble? Not by birth of that family, he reasoned. She didn't have the looks of a Kuchiki, or the studiously condescending blankness.

He'd known the moment she stepped into his house.

The reiatsu had been familiar, in a way- that of a Shinigami, and a good one, too. She appeared to be unranked, though. Huh. Maybe they weren't recognizing power as well as they had used to.

Isshin had watched, amused, as his son grew more and more attached to the little monster. She certainly was a piece of work, from what he could gather about her from the not-even-slightly-muffled arguments they were fond of having at three in the morning. Pretty, too, though if he was ever allowed to 'meet' her he would only mention that to bother Ichigo.

But something was going to happen.

She had given Ichigo her powers. It had been, Isshin knew, to save everyone's neck, but it was a felony.

Kuchiki Rukia was going to die.

And Isshin couldn't do a damn thing about it.

Would Ichigo be able to do something?

He was certainly a strong little bugger, but probably no match against anyone higher-ranking than a fourth seat in Soul Society, and in order to rescue his friend from her inevitable execution, he would clearly have to fight a few Captains. Isshin wished that he could reveal himself, at least to give advice. But that wasn't wise. He couldn't do that.

For one thing, the shock would probably kill Ichigo and his pretty little friend.

Isshin certainly didn't want to do that.

Besides, there was no way that Ichigo would let her die. Isshin recognized that. He himself would never let a friend die, no matter what the odds.

But Isshin had not been able to protect Masaki.

He cursed himself for that every day.

No, he couldn't let Ichigo end up like that. He wouldn't.

He wouldn't let his son's life fall apart like his had.

But, hey, he thought, watching Rukia shove Ichigo suddenly in the side about something he said, watching Ichigo fly sideways four feet and land on his face in the mud (Rukia was considerably stronger than she looked, apparently), and then get up and start screaming at the small girl even as he ran after her. At least as far as this went, turnabout was fair play.


End file.
